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1
Wichita Lineman - Remastered 2001
Glen Campbell
03:06
2
Skinny Man - Remastered 2000
The 5th Dimension
02:51
3
Mary, Mary - Original Stereo Version; 2006 Remaster
The Monkees
02:17
4
The Daily Planet
Love
03:30
5
A Little Less Conversation
Elvis Presley
02:12
6
Good News - Remastered 2000
The 5th Dimension
02:35
7
Gypsies, Tramps And Thieves
Cher
02:37
8
New In Town
Gary Lewis & The Playboys
02:27
9
Treasure Of San Miguel
Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass
02:13
10
Dizzy
Tommy Roe
02:57
11
Somethin' Stupid
Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra
02:42
12
This Guy's In Love With You
Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass
03:59
13
Mrs. Robinson - From "The Graduate" Soundtrack
Simon & Garfunkel
04:04
14
Hawaii Five-O
The Ventures
01:53
15
Mission: Impossible
Lalo Schifrin
02:32
16
Classical Gas
Mason Williams
03:04
17
Keep the Customer Satisfied
Simon & Garfunkel
02:35
18
Some Velvet Morning
Nancy Sinatra, Lee Hazlewood
03:41
19
We've Only Just Begun
Carpenters
03:04
20
Different Drum
Stone Poneys, Linda Ronstadt
02:39
21
Windy - Mono
The Association
02:56
22
On a Quite Night - Mono
The Association
03:22
23
Creeque Alley - Single Version
The Mamas & The Papas
03:48
24
Twelve Thirty - Single Version
The Mamas & The Papas
03:24
25
If I Can Dream - Live from the '68 Comeback Special
Elvis Presley
03:20
26
Everybody's Talkin'
Harry Nilsson
02:32
27
Come On Get Happy - The Partridge Family Theme
David Cassidy
01:05
28
Shooting Star
The Mamas & The Papas
02:54
29
Love Will Keep Us Together
Captain & Tennille
03:23

The Wrecking Crew (1967-75)

Part two of our tribute to the anonymous musicians behind almost every US pop hit of the era. 
 

In part one of this look at the largely anonymous team who played on a colossal number of US pop hits of the 60s we saw that although their output was vast and varied there was a common denominator of radio-friendly pop; be it the crooning of Sinatra or Martin, Herb Alpert’s Tijuana trumpet, the surf and Spector sounds dug by the kids or the sunshine harmonies of the top vocal groups. 

However, we also heard them backing the most ground-breaking music of the times via Brian Wilson’s incredible musical brain. Witness also Lee Hazlewood’s extraordinary 1967 duet with Nancy Sinatra, switching between 4/4- and 3/4-time signatures. Elektra producer Bruce Botnick hired the Crew to realise Arthur Lee’s envelope-pushing vision for symphonic rock music when Love were looking not up to the task. Shocked and stunned, the band persuaded Lee and Botnick to give them another chance and they duly delivered Lee’s masterpiece and my favourite album of all time, Forever Changes, but The Daily Planet retains the backing tracks recorded by Crew mainstays Hal Blaine, Carol Kaye, Don Randi and Billy Strange.

The Fifth Dimension, Simon and Garfunkel, Elvis, Sammy, The Monkees and even The Electric Prunes… The Wrecking Crew were working their pants off. Literally thousands of sessions, several in a day, and the hits kept coming. And then one of their own became a star!

Originally from Arkansas guitarist and vocalist Glen Campbell was one of the youngest members of the Crew. Frank Sinatra apparently called him a ‘cowboy’ on the Strangers in the Night Session, but the 30-year-old was soon to hit the big time. His covers of Jimmy Webb’s songs, such as Galveston and By the Time I Get to Phoenix shot him into showbiz big time, but it was Wichita Lineman that was touched by genius. That genius was not just Campbell’s and Webb’s, whose songs were also providing Wrecking Crew hits for the Fifth Dimension and Sammy Davis, among many others. From Carol Kaye’s opening bass riff and Hal Blaine’s beautiful drum kick in, we have in the hands of arranger Al De Lory three minutes of sheer magic. In 2010, Rolling Stone magazine's list of the ‘500 Greatest Songs of All Time’ ranked ‘Wichita Lineman’ at number 195, which is preposterous - no way is there 194 songs better than this. 

Already mentioned, bassist (and occasional guitarist) Carol Kaye and drummer Hal Blaine are other names who have gradually got their due respect, albeit several decades on. Blaine, who died aged 90 in 2019, really was the King of the Crew. He played on thousands of hits and an estimated forty #1 records. From 1966-71 he played on six consecutive Grammy Award Record of the Year winners. It is Hal Blaine that you hear at the start of Elvis’ fantastic A Little Less Conversation and check the same groovy intro on the Fifth Dimension’s Good News. I haven’t been able to verify this but am convinced that the delicious bass plucking on Gary Lewis’ New in Town is by Carol. It’s gotta be her!  There are plenty of YouTube clips of Carol talking about her career. Please check them out. She was the sole female musician in the Crew and is truly a treasure. 

We can’t name check them all but music lovers who like to dig a little deeper will recognise the names Leon Russell, Earl Palmer, Tommy Tedesco, Larry Knechtel, Jim Keltner, Jim Gordon, Al Casey, Al De Lory, Dr John, Billy Strange, Jim Horn, Julius Wechter and James Burton. They really did have something magical going on over there, but all good things come to an end. The heyday of the WC hit factory started to wind down in the early seventies, though classics would still appear such as Captain and Tenille’s 1975 worldwide smash Love Will Keep Us Together. 

In 2008 Denny Tedesco, son of guitarist Tommy Tedesco, produced The Wrecking Crew, a multi-award-winning documentary, that has gone some way to giving these musicians their dues.  

Few of these cats would get recognised in a supermarket in their hometowns, yet to this day they are heard dozens of times a day on radios, jukeboxes and CD players throughout the world. Pianist Don Randi expressed it succinctly and perfectly with the title of his memoir; ‘You’ve Heard These Hands’. 
 

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